KotS Session 2: A Thief in the Night May 24, 2010

The heroes travel back to Winterhaven with Sister Linora and the two boys they just rescued. The more they travel, the more Ronen becomes leery of Sister Linora’s incessant pleading that he destroy the ancient tome. He decides to change the cover of the book, swapping it with one of his own tome covers. The party arrives at Winterhaven and are escorted to Lord Padraig’s palace. They share details with him of what happened and he thanks them for their kind deed. He decides to have a day of feasting and celebration in their honor the next day, starting at noon, in the market square. He also invites them to be his special guests at the palace, while they are in town. His assistant Gareth tends to them and many of the party determine that they don’t trust Gareth.

They party goes around town for a bit to sell and purchase items. They meet a few of the more notable locals: Bairwin Wildarson who runs a shopped that deals in slightly more exotic items, Valthrun the Prescient who is the town’s mage in residence, Salvana Wrafton who owns the local tavern, and Delphina Moongleam who sells flowers in the market. Thotham leaves a ring with Valthrun to see if he will enchant it. The party also asks Valthrun about Kalarel, Ninaran, and the Shadow Key. Valthrun agrees to look into them for the party.

So Sneakily They Come Into Your Room

The group eventually heads to Lord Padraig’s manor to sleep. During the night, they are awakened by intruders dressed in black, sneaking around their rooms (the males were in one room and the females were sharing the adjoining room). Fighting breaks out and before they can shut off the escape, one of the thieves throws Helvec’s book out of the window. Ronen drops a nasty spell and then teleports outside of the room to see a short-haired woman rounding the corner. He takes off after her, leaving Thotham alone to fend for himself.

The ladies meanwhile are fighting off the intruders in their room with a great deal of success. Katryn is melding into and out of the shadows, getting sneak attack damage on many foes. Although Luna is surrounded and prone, laying in her bed, she successfully fends off the attackers while Katryn dishes out damage.

Ronen, running after the female book thief with short hair, turns the corner to disappointingly find the courtyard empty. Frustrated he briefly searches for signs of her escape but is unable to find any leads so he heads back to the room. He finds Thotham in trouble and helps to dispatch the remaining assailants, but not before Thotham drops unconscious to the floor.

The last attacker in the girls’ room tries to make an escape but catches a dagger to the leg that causes him to stumble and get stuck halfway in the window. Luna, changing to her Form of the Fearsome Ram, charges at the attacker, instantly killing him and popping his head off of his spine from the force.

Lord Padraig’s guards arrive too late to be of any assistance, but Padraig insists that the guard be doubled around the room so the heroes can get a good night’s sleep.

Final Thoughts

This felt like a very successful session. Seeing Brian’s face when the short-haired woman disappeared without a trace was priceless for me; it was a look of utter sadness (which informed me that he was thoroughly invested). No worries, he will have the chance to get that book back.

Joe was trying out a Goliath Shaman instead of his Bard and although the Shaman seems like a really cool class, I think he felt like the Bard was more of what he was looking for in the end, so he will go back to that.

Sierra was not feeling well and it got worse as the night went on, so the fact that she had fun at all made me happy.

The nicest surprise from this session was how involved Jessica was. She seemed to really enjoy herself and to be focused on what her character was doing. She made an excellent sneak.